Geminid Meteor Shower 2018 in Death Valley

Death Valley landscape photography workshop

In pursuit of optimal dune lighting in Death Valley.

Can landscape photography benefit from anticipating optimum sun angles? From the looks of this sand dune shot that we anticipated and pursued, it sure seems so!

Is a landscape photography workshop compatible with night photography? In the short days of winter, when sunrise is 6:48 am and your dark sky night photography starts at 6:30 pm, landscape and night photography work particularly well together!

So we treated the daytime hours like a landscape photography workshop, and being able to pursue comet, meteor, star trails and meteor shower composites and time-lapse video was a nice bonus! Leaving cameras out shooting for a few hours, here’s a look at a Geminid meteor shower composite:

South-facing Geminid meteor shower 2018 composite

Time-lapse footage of the Geminids on the peak night of December 13-14, 2018 was also easy to assemble from the same shots:

Here’s the north-facing view:

North-facing Geminid meteor shower 2018 composite

Here’s a wide angle night image with blue-green Comet 46P/Wirtanen visible in the sky above:

The blue-green spot in the sky is Comet 46P/Wirtanen (2018) over Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley.

The astronomical events were’t the only air show in the Park last week. During the day as we were touring the park, one of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada put on a show for us. He flew below us in a canyon, then performed a roll upon exiting! It appears to be #8 Maj. Branden Felker.

US Air Force Thunderbirds #8 in Death Valley National Park (page 130).

I cover three great locations in Death Valley to photograph jets in my guidebook “Photographing California – Vol. 2 – South”.

I’ll gradually work through the landscape photos from the trip in the coming weeks and add some highlights below. Meanwhile we’ll be applying everything we’ve learned into the 2019 photography workshop schedule.